Steve: Is Stanton Wood Manor a Real School?

Netflix’s ‘Steve‘ is a drama film centered around a UK-based reform school, which is home to some deeply captivating yet troubled characters. The protagonist Stev remains at the story’s nucleus as the head teacher at Stanton Wood Manor, a boarding school for wayward teenage boys whom society would rather discard. This becomes glaringly obvious when the educator and the other concerned staff members receive the devastating news that the trust behind the establishment is planning on abruptly bringing an end to the entire endeavor. The fact that this news arrives on the same day as a nosy television filming crew from the folks at Points West certainly doesn’t help matters. Therefore, Steve finds himself juggling many plates while struggling with issues of his own. Throughout the narrative, Stanton Wood Manor remains a central element of the story. Naturally, the establishment’s genesis remains a source of much intrigue.

Stanton Wood Manor is a Fictional Place That Lends to Realistic Worldbuilding

‘Steve’ is a work of fiction that employs similarly fictitious storytelling tools throughout its narrative. The film is a reimagining of screenwriter Max Porter’s novella ‘Shy,’ with the on-screen adaptation shifting perspectives to tell the same foundational story. Thus, the characters, events, and places mentioned in the tale, including Stanton Wood Manor school, hold no other basis in reality outside of Porter’s imagination. However, fans might be able to find identically christened establishments of various varieties in real life. One such place is Stanton Manor, a hotel and restaurant located in Stanton St Quintin, England. Nonetheless, the place has no direct connection to the on-screen institution, the filming for which reportedly took place in Bath, a city in Somerset, England.

As a reform school, Stanton Wood retains some connections to the reality of Approved Schools in the United Kingdom. These establishments, previously known as reformatory schools, offer an alternative institution for teenagers and young children who have been found guilty of crimes. As a government-funded establishment, guiding troubled teenage boys, Stanton Wood presents a parallel to the same. Furthermore, much like other elements in the film, the school also retains a basis ‘Shy.’ In Porter’s novella, which centers around one of Steve’s students, Shy, the central reform school is called Last Chance. Despite the name change, the Stanton Wood Manor remains based on the same literary element.

As a result, it finds the same thematic resonance in the story as its bookish counterpart. In the narrative, the impending closure of Stanton Wood serves to highlight the subliminal political aspects of the story. In a conversation with Esquire, Porter expanded upon the same in relation to Last Chance. The author said, “Anybody reading this book (‘Shy’) now, who is awake, will see what the consequences of a place like Last Chance closing is. When you close youth clubs and social support systems in inner cities, what happens when you strip the welfare state of funding? These things are obvious and terrifying. Where are we? Where are we going?” In ‘Steve,’ Stanton Wood fulfills much the same purpose, improving the fictional story’s sense of reality. Even so, ultimately, the place remains a work of fiction without any direct counterparts in real life.

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